Welcome! Follow me on twitter at @johnrlottjr or at https://crimeresearch.org. Please e-mail questions to johnrlott@crimeresearch.org.

2/27/2014

Florida woman loses her job because she brought her permitted concealed handgun into the workplace

I can definitely understand Ivette Ros wanting to keep her gun with her at all times for safety reasons. That said, I don't know the case law here and I haven't read the statute. There is a view poll at the website. From Channel 9 TV in Tampa, Florida:

Single mother Ivette Ros doesn’t go anywhere without her gun.But the 37-year-old lost her job as a bank manager for bringing her gun to work at a Wells Fargo branch in Oldsmar.
“When we take our course for concealed weapons licenses, they do state the bank is a place we can take your weapon to, so I never thought otherwise until I was being questioned,” she said.
Ros doesn’t know who found out she was packing or how they found out, but she says bank security questioned her about the gun she was carrying. She says she was fired three days later.
Now she and her lawyer have filed a lawsuit seeking damages.
"What she did was within her constitutional rights," Second Amendment attorney Noel Flasterstein said. "What they did was a violation of Florida statute. Hence we have the suit, hence we’ll move forward."
While Wells Fargo wouldn’t comment specifically on Ros' case, spokeswoman Kathy Harrison released a written statement:
"We have a policy regarding firearms which is that employees are strictly prohibited from possessing firearms and weapons on company premises. However, Wells Fargo recognizes applicable state laws regarding guns in employer parking lots.” . . .

From reading the story, I wonder how clear the policy was to Ms. Ros and other workers. Still, even if one disagrees with the company's decision, there is still a benefit from letting private property owners determine what they want to do on their own property. If enough workers feel the way Ms. Ros does, it would force the company to change its policy.